Saturday, May 07, 2011

to me, too."Today's incitement is an important step, but it is only a first step to serving justice on behalf of Agent Brian Terry," U.S. Attorney Dennis K. Burke said in a statement.

U.S. Attorney Burke, who announced today's indictment, was also the U.S. Attorney on a major ATF alleged gunwalking operation in Phoenix known as "Fast and Furious".(Emphasis supplied, MBV.

Terry's death is at the center of the so-called "gunwalker" controversy at the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms (ATF). Insiders say ATF used a controversial intelligence-gathering strategy called lettings guns "walk," and allowed thousands of assault weapons to hit the streets to see where they'd end up.

As CBS News has reported, two AK-47 variant assault rifles that ATF allegedly let "walk" were found at the murder scene of Agent Terry on Dec. 14. According to the indictment unsealed today, Osorio-Arellanes was part of an "armed group of illegal aliens that engaged in a firefight with Agent Terry and other border patrol agents...One of the group shot Agent Terry who died of the wound." Osorio-Arellanes was also wounded in the exchange and has been in federal custody on felony immigration charges.That's from the news story: from the gentleman at Sipsey,Burke, who served as Chief of Staff to Arizona Governor Janet Napolitano from 2003 to 2008 (described here as Janet's "long-time right hand man") and who was sworn in as the United States Attorney for the District of Arizona on 16 September 2009 (just in time to work on the Fast and Furious portion of the Gunwalker scandal), is famously quoted as saying that, in his expert opinion, an “iron river” of weapons flows from Phoenix to Mexico.

Well, hell, he ought to know since he facilitated the Gunwalker scandal from the U.S. Attorney's office in Phoenix.

Burke is not just some low-level USA, for he was also recently appointed to serve on the Attorney General's Advisory Committee (AGAC) which advises the Attorney General on policy, management, and operational issues at the Department of Justice and he was also selected to be the Chair of the AGAC Subcommittee on Border and Immigration Law Enforcement.

The timing of this indictment is no accident....But now, after doing nothing but covering up for almost five months, the DOJ will say with this oh-too-convenient indictment, that it is a MURDER investigation that Issa and Holder are dabbling with so DOJ still can't cooperate with the subpoenas. What horseshit.

Now, if I was a hot-shot attorney, or I had the money to hire same, I would make sure that Osorio-Arellanes dumped his court-appointed defense attorney and got the very best lawyering possible. I just KNOW that the discovery phase of this trial, handled by a competent attorney, would blow the lid off the prosecution and the Gunwalker scandal, both at the same time.Holder & Melson & Co. have to be having cramps now, can you imagine if some lawyer who'd actually dig into this said he'd represent this dirtbag? 'Discovery' of the contents of their bowels that just went into their pants, I'd imagine.

full of crap. And apparently less useful, since crap can be used as a fertilizer.An American man is suspected of smuggling 80 weapons into the UK by hiding them in his suitcases.

Former U.S. marine Steven Greenoe, who holds British citizenship, apparently strolled through airport security in both Britain and America with dozens of handguns stashed in his suitcases on ten flights last year.

He is believed to have delivered them to criminal contacts in the North West of England. On one occasion, Greenoe was stopped after officials at Atlanta airport spotted the firearms.

But incredibly he was allowed to board the flight after telling officials he worked as an international security consultant.

The revelations are an embarrassment for transatlantic security and for the UK Border Agency. (Ya THINK?)

and the peasants should be thrilled to pay for what he wants.Sneed has learned Mayor Daley is requesting a retinue of at least three — around the clock — Chicago Police bodyguards from his mayoral security detail to accompany him into the private sector!

† Sneed also hears whispers Mayor Daley, who retires May 16, wants two vehicles at his disposal; one for himself — and one for his wife, Maggie....† A second Sneed source claims Mayor Daley initially asked for five bodyguards, but that may have included a number needed for constant surveillance.

that has to be shared:I like the idea of a Martyr's Sea. It should be marked on all our nav charts. That way, whenever a U.S. man of war passes through the area, they could render appropriate honors. (Now all hands not on watch man the rail, starboard side. Stand by to drop trou. Execute. Now all hands, on my count, urinate. 3, 2, 1, execute. Stand by to recover. Recover. That is all.)

Thursday, May 05, 2011

prosecutes you for it."Holder's holding indictments over the heads of CIA interrogators -- the same ones who delivered bin Ladin to the SEALs.

Burlingame asked him about that, and said "I know you can't tell him what to do" (which isn't really true), and Obama said "That's right."

Then she asked, even if she couldn't order him to drop the prosecution of the interrogators who got bin Ladin, if he would at least offer Holder his opinion that there should be no prosecutions, he answered: "No, I won't."

Huh. Big Damn Hero, huh?

She went on to note that, last May, a Dallas US Attorney sought to indict CAIR officials (for terrorist ties and terrorist funding, of course), and Holder quashed those indictments.Yeah, President Lightbringer really appreciates those doing the work, doesn't he?

working out? Not very well:Radical Muslims are already calling the site of Osama bin Laden’s ocean burial the ‘Martyr’s Sea’, according to one of Britain’s leading Islamic scholars.

The US said the decision to drop bin Laden’s body into the North Arabian Sea was taken to avoid creating a shrine for the slain Al Qaeda chief.

But Abdal Hakim Murad, Muslim Chaplain at Cambridge University, claimed yesterday that the move could backfire on the Americans.And just where did this dumping in the deep take place? Not all that damned far from Mecca; isn't that interesting?So they not only did this, they then announced where. Bloody genius, I tell you!

We're probably lucky the Vinson didn't get orders to detour to the Red Sea for the funeral.

Hmmm, that's odd. I pulled up a Mapquest map of Saudi, and discovered that it doesn't show Mecca. al Madinah, but not Mecca; maybe they don't like unbelievers seeing where the place is? And, scrolling a bit north, I find that Jerusalem is labeled Yerushalayim.

While Gunwalker is going on, in North Carolina,What I haven't made public (until now) is the work I've continued on this case, including the development of key witnesses against Booth and his allegedly criminal enterprises, and the even more frustrating obstruction of justice being carried out by corrupt BATF agents and auditors hoping to cover their tracks and preserve their careers. If you think that Operation Fast and Furious was a mess in Arizona, I can assure you that is every bit as bad here in North Carolina, and far more petty.

There is reputedly physical and documentary evidence that exists to bring charges to put Mr. Booth in prison for many years, but BATF agents and auditors in Greensboro are stonewalling the investigation with the help of at least one BATF employee in Fayetteville.

And the piece of sheer stupidity is in Wisconsin:Grant County authorities have accused a 6-year-old boy of first-degree sexual assault of a child for allegedly playing "doctor" with a 5-year-old girl in September.

The case, which is plowing new legal ground in Wisconsin, calls into question when a child's act can be considered criminal -- particularly when it involves behavior some experts say is normal for children that age -- and who makes that determination.

Under state law, the boy is too young to be charged with a crime or in a juvenile delinquency petition, the equivalent of a criminal complaint for juveniles. Instead, prosecutors have included the allegations in a petition seeking protection or services for the boy. Such petitions are typically used by parents or authorities to identify children under 10 who need services to change inappropriate behavior."We need to make him think and act in approved ways, for his own good." Yeah, I'll really trust that.

From the idiot judge:Judge Leineweber refused to dismiss the petitions, saying the relevant part of the sexual assault allegation is the mother's observations.

The boy needed only to have penetrated the girl and known she was under a certain age, he wrote, adding, "Even the most immature 6-year-old could appreciate these two concepts."Hm. You'd think an adult trusted to wear that black robe would have enough working brain cells to prevent his making such an idiot statement; but you'd be wrong.

The video feeds of this op were likely transmitted via a drone circling overhead, an AWACS or similar aircraft in Afghanistan and another in the Arabian Sea, and surveillance satellites overhead. The odds that feeds from 79 operators, fed through multiple uplinks, was never seen or recorded simply isn't credulous.

Further, you'll note that Panetta chose his words very carefully. They did not have direct flow of information. That indicates that there were recording of the assault recorded on the flash-memory of helmet-mounted cameras, but these are just one more set of images—along with the three or more sets of photographs of Bin Laden's body—that the "most transparent Administration in history" refuses to show the American people.

In a second, equally explosive disclosure, a law enforcement source tells Fox News, that ATF undercover agents were acting as the straw buyers and purchasing guns using government-issued false identifications and then providing those guns to cartel traffickers to gain credibility in their undercover roles. In that capacity, the ATF "provided 2, 50 cal. machine guns to traffickers that are loose in Mexico and unaccounted for," the source said.So ATF wasn't just letting- hell, helping- cartel buyers smuggle guns across the border, they actively made straw buys and GAVE THE GUNS TO THE SMUGGLERS. Said guns being taken across the border, which activity ATF and Justice have already lied about and said didn't happen.

Rep. Chaffetz: Now, this program was approved by the Justice Department, my understanding is, in January of 2010. I guess I'm struggling to understand why an operation as big and as large and as important as this has not come to your attention for more than a year after it was originally authorized. Can you help me understand that?

AG Holder: Well, I mean, you have to understand. Something that, as big—you described as "big"—in comparison to all the other things that are going on in the department at any one given time, might not seem quite as large. I have, as I said, 114, 115-thousand employees: the FBI, the ATF, the DEA—you know, a whole variety of things that we've talked about here today.

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Are we to understand, then, that we are being asked to believe that deliberately facilitating the illegal trafficking of thousands of firearms to brutal criminals in a neighboring country and important trading partner wasn't important enough to warrant the Attorney General's attention?

In one of the gag moments of this,

I have had to look into the eyes of widows, of mothers who have lost sons. I have felt their pain, and the notion that somehow, some way, we are less than vigilant, less than strong in our determination to keep the people who put their lives on the line every day to protect the American people, that we're not doing all the we can to protect them, is inconsistent with the facts, inconsistent with the people who serve in the Department of Justice.

Think Holder is thinking back to Bill Clinton 'feeling your pain', or is this just a progressive asshole thing to say? Kind of seared into their consciousness?

Hofmann's response:Well, speaking of "inconsistent," Mr. Attorney General, is it not just a teensy bit "inconsistent" to hotly deny being "less than vigilant" about dangers to law enforcement officers--and then a few minutes later, explain that deliberately facilitating the trafficking of the guns used to kill those officers was too minor a matter to merit your attention?

The SEALs’ decision to fatally shoot bin Laden -- even though he didn’t have a weapon – wasn’t an accident. The administration had made clear to the military’s clandestine Joint Special Operations Command that it wanted bin Laden dead, according to a senior U.S. official with knowledge of the discussions. A high-ranking military officer briefed on the assault said the SEALs knew their mission was not to take him alive.

WRONG FUCKING ANSWER! If you order the SEALs to kill and not capture bin Laden then there is NO DECISION FOR THEM TO MAKE! They are following explicit orders of the President of the United States, but Obama does not have the sac to stand behind his decision and support the very people who are responsible for the only foreign policy victory of his Presidency. Sure, Obama is content to accept the congratulations from the media and his supporters for his "gutsy" decision, but when the rubber meets the road he says, "Hey thanks SEALs for killing bin Laden like I told you to. But you didn't expect me to stand behind you when my left wing media starts going after you as murderers? Oh you did? How cute."

andMeanwhile, between NSC staffers, the WH Press Secretary, Homeland Security, CIA and a multitude of “Senior Administration Officials” on background, the story has morphed into various versions of events. While the political side of me sees this correctly as another manifestation of the incompetence of this Administration, this vacillation is causing real harm to the significance of our victory here and to the reputation of the SEAL Teams. Let me assure you right now that there is no such thing as a “Kill only “ mission. If that SEAL operator came through the door to find UBL with his hands up, compliant, and unarmed (including no evidence of a suicide vest) he would have taken a muzzle strike to the face, but not any rounds. He would have swallowed some teeth, been flex cuffed, and dragged roughly out to a marshalling area and then onto the helo. To start out with the story that UBL had used his wife as a shield while shooting at the assaulters and to devolve that into to a woman was wounded and UBL was unarmed and shot in the face is quite a large spectrum of “truth”. Add to that the false notion of the “Kill only” mission, and now you have the entire SEAL community being thrown under the bus as wonton killers of women and unarmed civilians.

Are Navy SEALs eager to kill terrorists and UBL most of all? Hells Yeah! But we would not be tasked with a mission profile that excludes the capture of the single greatest intelligence bonanza in the history of the conflict. Certainly we will exploit the intel collected on the target and soon, but if you simply want to kill somebody no matter what you do not send Navy SEALs across a sovereign border to do it. That is what Hellfire missilesand JDAMs are designed to do.

The University of Wisconsin at Oshkosh has taken unspecified "corrective action" against Stephen Richards, a criminal justice professor, for encouraging students to sign a petition to recall a state senator. Not just encouraging to sign: This news item doesn’t make clear that he was accused of encouraging election fraud. “In the tape, recorded during a criminal justice class, Richards can be heard encouraging a female student to sign the recall petition even though she thinks she lives outside the district, and instructing students to sign using their campus address instead of their parents’ home address.”

Remember the mess at the Tucson school board meeting? It keeps on:At a Tucson Unified School District school board meeting on Tuesday — which was a make-up for one canceled after students chained themselves to board-room desks on April 26 — riot police were called in to restore order after program supporters become restless during the public input section of the meeting.Remember what this crap is all about:...As we’ve previously reported, the district isn’t trying to ban the program outright. Instead, it wants to make a controversial history class — that calls for “death to the invaders” and was found to advocate overthrowing the U.S. government — an elective instead of allowing it to substitute for required history credits. That’s it. And the disturbing class would still be available to students.

But that’s not the rhetoric coming from the supporters. They’re trumpeting the message that the district is trying to eliminate the program altogether, a tactic used to stir up anger and action.So a bunch of America-haters lie to try and force a class with this kind of outlook on all students; wonderful, isn't it? Gets even better; go look toward the bottom at who may be involved.

Ah, that "If you make less than $200k, you won't see a penny of your taxes go up" promise; really meant a lot, didn't it?The Obama administration has floated a transportation authorization bill that would require the study and implementation of a plan to tax automobile drivers based on how many miles they drive.

The plan is a part of the administration's "Transportation Opportunities Act," an undated draft of which was obtained this week by Transportation Weekly. And if you think they'll plan on taking the federal tax off gasoline since you'll be paying by the mile, I have a bridge I'd like to sell you. Not to mention the loss of privacy aspect.

Wednesday, May 04, 2011

One of the documents shows Assistant Attorney General Lanny Breuer approved a wiretap application for suspects Operation Fast and Furious targeted in March 2010. The wiretap application process is lengthy and cumbersome, and often requires those applying to make strong case as to why they need it. So, Breuer would have been briefed in detail on Operation Fast and Furious before authorizing the wiretap....The third document, an e-mail from Arizona-based U.S. Attorney Shelley Clemens to Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) official Richard Crocker and FBI official S. Annette Bartlett, shows that the Justice Department has begun scrambling to stop the gun “walking” practice since Issa and Sen. Chuck Grassley, Iowa Republican, launched investigations into the program. “Yesterday, we received a directive from the DAG [Deputy Attorney General], instructing on DOJ’s policy regarding guns going south into Mexico,” Shelley wrote on March 10, 2011. The directive from the Deputy AG, as she Shelley quotes it, is: “We should not design or conduct undercover operations which include guns crossing the border. If we have knowledge that guns are about to cross the border, we must take immediate action to stop the firearms from crossing the border, even if that prematurely terminates or otherwise jeopardizes an investigation.”...Then, on Wednesday, before Issa released the three new documents, Grassley grilled Holder about the email from Clemens and the indications of a policy shift during a Senate Judiciary Committee hearing. Grassley pushed Holder on the e-mail from Clemens. “If the ATF, as the agency keeps telling us, did not knowingly allow guns into the hands of traffickers, why was that directive even necessary? Why issue a memo telling people to stop doing something unless you think maybe they have been doing it?” Grassley asked Holder.Holder's been saying he first heard of this 'a few weeks ago', which he evidently means to cover 'months ago, maybe years, but I'm not admitting that." Which this would indicate to mean that the lying bastard has perjured himself. At least once.

Let us not forget that this group includes the sorry bastard excuses for lawmen at BATFE who don't give a rats ass about the lives of their own agents and their families:"When I made complaints against the ATF, they were completely ignored and whitewashed and they left the same people in place to operate Project Gunrunner," says ATF Tucson Agent Jay Dobyns.

Dobyns spent two years undercover with the Hells Angels. While he became a star witness in the prosecution of 15 members of the motorcyle gang on charges ranging from extortion to murder, he also became a target of their revenge.

"You are gonna spend the rest of your life running from the Hells Angels," he says they told him. "We know who you are, we know where you live."

The ATF office in Phoenix, specifically Agent-in-Charge Bill Newell and his deputy, George Gillette, promised to protect Dobyns, but Dobyns says they didn't. He says the Hells Angels threatened to rape his wife and behead his children. Weeks later, Dobyns says the gang burned down his house with his family inside. Miraculously, they escaped.

"They abandoned us, they ignored us," said Dobyns.

He filed a complaint against the ATF. Seeking to contain the damage, the DOJ Office of Inspector General investigated and concluded the agency acted "recklessly, needlessly and inappropriately."

That was in August 2009 against Newell, Gillette and the ATF officials in charge. However, no one was held accountable. Operation Fast and Furious, under the direct authority of the ATF Phoenix Office, was launched less than six months later. Dobyns says allowing the ATF to conduct another OIG investigation would be a mistake

"They do not care what the OIG says. They don't care what the OIG conclusions are."This is a guy who did something nobody else had EVER done; and BATFE fucked up the evidence and the trials, and then basically left Dobyns and family hung out to dry. And then fucked him over further for daring to make noise about it.

But then, they don't care about the Mexicans and Americans dead with their help either, do they? Except as it affects their careers, of course.

To every muslim bitching about the 'martyred' pig-humping bin Ladin assuming ambient temperature: fuck you.To every muslim whining that America has declared war on Islam: fuck you, too.And to every gutless PC-at-any-cost politician who says we don't dare show pictures of this dead lower-than-pig crap terrorist because it might 'inflame' the muslim world: fuck you twice, and you need to get the hell out of that office you miserable excuses for Americans.

You're the same kind of assholes that don't want pictures like thisshown because it's 'too upsetting'; mostly because you're scared to death that people will fully remember what this picture means. Just like this oneand this oneYou don't have the balls to tell the enemy to piss off, oh no, you're too 'sensitive' to the feelings of the barbarians and 'world opinion'(which mostly means chickenshit politicians and leftists like you) for that. So you pretend you're protecting us from upsetting the enemy.

And, like it or not, a lot of muslims ARE the enemy. Not all, by any stretch, but many; but you being the gutless bastards you are you play 'they're not REAL muslims!' games because you don't have either the brains, guts or integrity- maybe you lack all three?- to flatly speak the truth. Why, some sensitive liberal might call you names! CAIR might protest(never mind that CAIR supports terrorism)!

Damn the screaming barbarians who want us dead anyway. Damn the politicians who'd rather play games in hopes of buying votes. They'd rather see us dead than speak a nasty non-PC truth. They'd rather surrender to the opinion of people who murder our guys and defile their bodies and cheer it, they'd rather surrender to shit who murder children and celebrate it.

HOLDER: I’m not sure whether Mr. Breuer authorized it. You have to understand the way in which the Department operates. Although there are operations, this one has become — has gotten a great deal of publicity.

ISSA: Yeah, there are dead Americans as a result of this failed and reckless program. So I would say that it hasn’t gotten enough attention, has it, Mr. Attorney General?... ISSA: Mr. Attorney General, do you take seriously a subpoena signed by the Clerk of the House?

HOLDER: Of course.

ISSA: After 14 days of waiting for a letter to be signed or acknowledged or responded to, we sent a subpoena signed by the Clerk of the House. 32 days later, last night, your people responded by giving us 92 pages representing 3 documents that were public records already.... ISSA: We’re not looking at the straw buyers, Mr. Attorney General. We’re looking at you. We’re looking at your key people who knew or should have known about this and whether or not your judgment was consistent with good practices and whether or not instead the Justice Department is basically guilty of allowing weapons to kill Americans and Mexicans. So will you agree to cooperate with that investigation both on the House and Senate side?

HOLDER: We’ll certainly cooperate with all the investigations, but I’m going to take great exception to what you just said. The notion that somehow or other this Justice Department is responsible for those deaths that you mentioned, that assertion’s offensive. And I want to tell you that –

ISSA: But what if it’s accurate, Mr. Attorney General?Like he says, good to see Issa isn't backing off or giving Holder an easy out on this.

A strongly-worded letter from Republican oversight members of Congress to Attorney General Eric Holder today came with an unusual handwritten notation at the bottom. Penned in blue ink by his signature, Sen. Charles Grassley's (R-Iowa) writes: "PS: You should check to see if you are getting accurate information from your staff. You might be ill-served."And Sipsey Street had about the same thought I did when I read this, though he goes into much more detail:"You may be ill-served" What a hoot! This is Grassley's tongue-in-cheek invitation to throw Melson and Breuer under the bus, and that's when the serious truth leakage begins because they'll use the Nuremberg defense, "I was only following orders." And they will have proof of it.

Grassley, knowing everything that he knows from the whistleblowers and leaked documents, has a very good idea of how involved Holder is in all of this -- up to his eyeballs. Worse, Holder knows that he knows. I'd be surprised that if, when he saw the postscript, Holder didn't ball the letter up and throw it across the room with a string of curses.

The only thing that can possibly, maybe, save Holder now is for the Gunwalker men, Melson and Breuer, to go happily skipping hand-in-hand like little kids down the path in Fort Marcy Park to their own perdition, following the Sicilian prescript that "Three men can keep a secret if two of them are dead."

Holder is toast and this is Grassley's way of reminding him of it. What he is really saying is, "Sooner or later we will have your subordinates under oath. Got a fall-back plan for THAT?"I just thought "He's giving Holder an out, isn't he? A way to try to blame it on subordinates?" Then I thought "But what happens when the subordinates disagree?"

The university then proceeded to try to deny Mitchell unemployment compensation by claiming, unsuccessfully, that he was fired for misconduct. A hearing officer found against the University of Kentucky and in favor of Mitchell.

All this, despite the fact that Mitchell had a Kentucky concealed carry permit, believed he had fully complied with Kentucky law governing concealed carry, and therefore cooperated fully with police and university authorities.Much as I dislike lawsuits, this sounds like a legitimate place for one: sue their ass off.

As Senator Grassley discussed on the phone with you yesterday, we are very concerned that the Department chose to send a letter containing false statements in response to his initial inquiry into the ATF whistleblower allegations related to Operation Fast and Furious. To be more specific, the Department sent a letter on February 4, 2011 claiming that the whistleblower allegations were “false” and that “ATF makes every effort to interdict weapons that have been purchased illegally and prevent their transportation to Mexico.” When questioned in transcribed interviews last week in Phoenix, agents with first-hand knowledge of ATF operations contradicted that claim.Specifically, in response to that exact quote, they said the Department’s letter was “false” and could not explain how such a representation could be made to Congress in light of what they witnessed on the ground in Phoenix in late 2009 and 2010, prior to the death of Border Patrol Agent Brian Terry. In fact, according to these witnesses, there was a specific strategy implemented to not “make every effort” but rather to avoid interdicting weapons in hopes of making a larger case against higher-ups in the trafficking organization.

Therefore, we were surprised and disappointed to see the Department repeat once again, in slightly different language, its denial in a letter received shortly after your telephone conversation with Senator Grassley. Yesterday’s letter reads, in part, “It remains our understanding that ATF’s Operation Fast and Furious did not knowingly permit straw buyers to take guns into Mexico.”

The documents and information previously provided to you demonstrate that the ATF urged gun dealers to go forward with sales to known straw buyers despite the concerns expressed by at least one dealer that the guns would be transferred to the border and possibly used against Border Patrol agents. ATF and Justice officials assured that dealer that unspecified safeguards were in place to ensure that did not happen. Yet, guns from that case were found at the scene of Border Patrol Agent Brian Terry’s murder and at crime scenes in Mexico.

In its latest denial, the Department seems to focus more on whether ATF knew guns were being trafficked to Mexico than whether the ATF knew they were being purchased by straw buyers. While it might be typical in Washington for lawyers to narrowly parse statements and argue over fine distinctions to confuse the issue, those are not the kind of answers that we believe the Justice Department should give to Congress when asked straightforward questions about such a serious matter as this one.

You were asked to please explain whether you deny that the ATF allowed the sale of assault weapons to straw purchasers, and if so, why given the evidence that was attached. The reply was not signed by you, did not explain whether you stand by the denial, did not explain why, and did not meaningfully address the serious issues raised by the attached emails between a gun dealer and the ATF.

We are extremely disappointed that you do not appear to be taking this issue seriously enough to ensure that the Department’s representations are accurate, forthcoming, and complete. We will continue to probe and gather the facts independently, as it has become clear that we cannot rely on the Department’s self-serving statements to obtain any realistic picture of what happened.

Sincerely,

Darrell Issa, Chairman Charles E. Grassley, Ranking MemberCommittee on Oversight & Committee on the JudiciaryGovernment Reform United State SenateU.S. House of RepresentativesThat, folks, is polite-speak for "You're a damned liar, we know it and we can prove it. And we're not going to stop digging into this."

And tomorrow Holder will be before Grassley in the Senate. Also under oath.

A motorcycle patrolman was rushed to the hospital with an inflamed appendix. Went right into surgery, and the doc advised him all was well. However.

He kept feeling something pulling down in his crotch. Worried the doc might have had to do something he wasn't telling him about/admitting to, he pulled the gown up to see. There, down low, he found tape: two strips above his penis and one across his testicles. The kind of tape that doesn't come off easily. Written across the top strip was

The answer would be 'He didn't have any' if this is correct.Q: You stated that President Obama was “overruled” by military/intelligence officials regarding the decision to send in military specialists into the Osama Bin Laden compound. Was that accurate?

A: I was told – in these exact terms, “we overruled him.” (Obama) I have since followed up and received further details on exactly what that meant, as well as the specifics of how Leon Panetta worked around the president’s “persistent hesitation to act.” There appears NOT to have been an outright overruling of any specific position by President Obama, simply because there was no specific position from the president to do so. President Obama was, in this case, as in all others, working as an absentee president.I'd strongly suggest you read this piece. If this information is accurate, not only did Obama not want to make a decision(or maybe couldn't think of a way to make it that wouldn't cause a huge blowup), he was basically being ordered around by Valerie Jarrett. And was willing to sit around and let bin Laden get away rather than act.

In my initial communication to you of these events I described what unfolded as a temporary Coup initiated by high ranking intelligence and military officials. I stand by that term. These figures worked around the uncertainty of President Obama and the repeated resistance of Valerie Jarrett. If they had not been willing to do so, I am certain Osama Bin Laden would still be alive today. There will be no punishment to those who acted outside the authority of the president’s office. The president cannot afford to admit such a fact. What will be most interesting from here is to now see what becomes of Valerie Jarrett. One source indicated she is threatening resignation. I find that unlikely given my strong belief she needs the protection afforded her by the Oval Office and its immense powers to delay and eventually terminate investigations back in Chicago, but we shall see.

Wave Theory: as in 'This wave is past, now watch for the next one':Face and Payback. Things may tamp down a bit as lower level commanders hit the mattresses to preserve themselves until they know the extent of what we got from the compound. Others may want to get revenge for their commander directly or if they have access, they may pull the trigger on sleeper cells. Hard to know, but we should expect that with the killing of their figurehead – the enemy has an extra motivation to get revenge for losing face. Hope that they are too busy saving themselves to plan external operations in the near future – but be prepared for the fact that they can run operations as well as they did in 9/11 and they are a very patient lot.According to this, the intelligence haul by itself would be worth the raid; be interesting to see what happens in the near future.

Monday, May 02, 2011

"Tomorrow, Attorney General Eric Holder will testify before the House Judiciary Committee," an email sent this afternoon by the Deputy Press Secretary, House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform announces:

Congressman Issa will press Attorney General Holder on the role of the ATF’s Phoenix office in 'Operation Fast and Furious', a botched gun tracking project which knowingly allowed guns into the hands of drug cartels leading to the death of U.S. Customs and Border Patrol agent Brian Terry.

The testimony will occur Tuesday 5/3/2011 at 10:15 a.m. at 2141 Rayburn House Office Building. It will be webcast live at www.judiciary.house.gov.Holder under oath; that should lead to some interesting responses to Issa.

Note I did not say 'answers', I'd imagine he's likely to try to avoid many of those.

Eventually, left the bar but returned with two members of her crew, 19-year-oldand a 17-year-oldwho was not identified, cops said.Yes, I removed the names, as it'd probably make these wastes of oxygen happy to have theirnames paraded around.Ibanez allegedly pulled a knife and began stabbing Stewart and his friends.

to ban imports of shotguns:On page 4 the following statements are made: “The 1989 study then examined the scope of “sporting purposes” as used in the statute. The study noted that “[t]he broadest possible interpretation could take in virtually any lawful activity or competition which any person or groups of persons might undertake. Under this interpretation, any rifle could meet the “sporting purposes” test. The 1989 study concluded that a broad interpretation would render the statute useless.”

Wrapped up in this paragraph we have not only an amusing logical blunder but also the real crux of the problem. Authors have presupposed the answer (so-called circular reasoning) at which they must arrive, i.e., the statute must remain useful.Thus, all interpretations by ATF are biased to yield that result. It is not the responsibility of the ATF nor is it within the purview of their authority to ensure the continued usefulness of a statute, if in fact it is rendered useless by advances, common practices, evolution in sporting, or lack of wise crafting of the statute (such as the fact that nowhere in this discussion of “sporting purposes” is there any latitude given for personal protection and home defense under the second amendment to the constitution of the United States). This single paragraph renders the study itself as useless as the statute has become.But if you work facts and reality, they can't grab at more power to disarm us peasants.

I tend to think not displaying the body and giving it a suitable funeral(bacon or hog guts in abundance) was a mistake; screw sensitivities.

I was up last night when Obama made his announcement; annoyed hell out of me. Podium empty, then he comes out of a door somewhere down the hall and strides to the podium, and proceeds to give a blank-faced speech. Looked like he didn't really care that Osama was dead, just a 'happy announcement' with no emotion showing(at least for the part of it I watched).

Ah well, he dead.

Oh, since it appears that info from Gitmo detainees helped lead to this, wonder if any of the usual suspects will shut up about Gitmo?

Sunday, May 01, 2011

But the real threat posed by this historic, gathering flood may well lie several hundred miles to the south, where the Mississippi crosses the Louisiana border. There, as the Corps well knows but dare not discuss, this historic flood threatens to overwhelm one of the frailest defenses industrial humanity has offered to preserve its profits from the immutable processes of nature. This flood has the potential to be a mortal blow to the economy of the United States, and outside the Corp of Engineers virtually no one knows why.

E-mail me

at elmtreeforge at att point net

Of all tyrannies, a tyranny exercised for the good of its victims may be the most oppressive. It may be better to live under robber barons than under omnipotent moral busybodies. The robber baron's cruelty may sometimes sleep, his cupidity may at some point be satiated; but those who torment us for our own good will torment us without end, for they do so with the approval of their consciences. - C.S. Lewis

Y'all got on this boat for different reasons, but y'all come to the same place. So now I'm asking more of you than I have before. Maybe all. Sure as I know anything, I know this - they will try again. Maybe on another world, maybe on this very ground swept clean. A year from now, ten? They'll swing back to the belief that they can make people... better. And I do not hold to that. So no more runnin'. I aim to misbehave. - Capt. Mal

A Rifleman’s Prayer:Oh Lord, I would live my life in freedom, peace and happiness, enjoying the simple pleasures of hearth and home. I would die an old, old man in my own bed, preferably of sexual overexertion.

But if that is not to be, Lord, if monsters such as this should find their way to my little corner of the world on my watch, then help me to sweep those bastards from the ramparts, because doing that is good, and right, and just.

And if in this I should fall, let me be found atop a pile of brass, behind the wall I made of their corpses. Geek with a .45

"He's Black Council,", I said.

"Or maybe stupid," Ebenezar countered.

I thought about it. "Not sure which is scarier."

Ebenezar blinked at me, then snorted. "Stupid, Hoss. Every time. Only so many blackhearted villains in the world, and they only get uppity on occasion. Stupid's everywhere, every day." Ebenezar McCoy

“A man can never have too much red wine, too many books, or too much ammunition” ― Rudyard Kipling